The Beginnings of in the Ancient World: Greece

Travis Rupp

&

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• One of the first alcoholic drinks in the Neolithic Period (c. 6000 BC). • Barley as currency • Staple cereal of ancient Egypt

• Residue tests indicate barley beer in Sumeria by 5000 BC • Sumerian Tablet depicting process c. 4000 BC • Listed in Egyptian grave goods c. 2650- 2575 (Tomb of Hekherebau) • Oldest recipe, Sumerian poem honoring Ninkasi (1900 BC) Funerary stele from el-Amarna (c. 1350 BC) • Epic of (18th century)

Tell el-Farkha: (3600-2600 BC)

Rise of the Industry: Egypt 3D Reconstruction of Tell el-Farcha (c. 3500 BC)

12 x 13 feet

ROMAN BREWING?

Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) “A particular intoxication…” (Nat. Hist. 14.29.149)

Roman benefits of beer?

…lactis potus ossa alit, frugum nervos, aqua carnes (23.22.37).

…quorum omnium spuma cutem feminarum in facie nutrit (22.82.164). Floor Malting Born in Europe – AD 179

Above: Reconstruction of the furnace for the kilning floor at Regensburg

Left: reconstruction of a medieval chimney, much like the one that Roman Ruin in Regensburg, Germany: The would have covered oldest known Malt House in the world the furnace pit at (constructed AD 179) Regensburg Beer Rations for Soldiers

Letter c. AD 100

Decurion Masculus to prefect Flavius Cerialis:

Cervesam commilitones non habunt quam rogo iubeas mitti.

Atrectus the cervesar[ius[? Birth of beer styles and the cost of a pint… Diocletian’s Tax Reforms and the Cost of Production (AD 284-305)

 Different terms for different ? • Cervesia = Celtic • Camum = Celtic barley beer • Zythum = Egyptian beer • Sabaia = Beer of Illyricum

 An Italian Sextarius (Pint) • Celtic beers = 4 denarii • Zythum = 2 denarii • Cheapest wine = 8 denarii Bust of Diocletian r. AD 284-305  1 Denarius = a skilled laborers daily wage. Traditional View for the Spread of Beer

1. Sumerians taught Egyptians

1. Egyptians taught Greeks

1. Greeks taught the Romans

1. Romans taught the “savage tribes” of Britain

 Pliny and Tacitus attribute the development of the “brewing art” to Celtic and Teutonic Publius Cornelius Tacitus (AD 56-117) people of Britain and Central Europe. Bronze Age Brewing Thera and Akrotiri

The “Minoan Pompeii” c. 3000-1450 BCE

Spyridon Marinatos “…we found a small broken pithos in the 1901-1974 bottom of which there was found this substance which we arbitrarily called flour. When the vase was found this substance in the bottom, about 5-8cm. thick, was found in shrunken state, and the side walls of the vase did not touch it. Under the influence of heat, dryness, or both, it had lost part of its original mass. Examination under a strong lens showed that the substance was in fact barley flour which had been very imperfectly ground. The farina had disappeared but the bark part of the barley grains could still be seen in the form of thin needles or small straws. Some grains of barley that had slipped through the millstone were found intact. It was evidently not perfect flour, but coarse and something like the homeric ουλοχυταιemployed in the sacrifices.” - 1968

Nippled Ewer with Barley Motif

Thera, Akrotiri ca. 1628 B.C.

Homeric Beer: κυκέων c. 8th cent. BC

Iliad - 11.624, 638-41 Odyssey - 10.234-36, 290, and 316–317 βρῦτος or βρῦτον (7th-4th cent. BC)

• Greek word = “brewed beverage” • not a Thracian word

• τάς κριθάς ἐς τό πῶμα καταλέουσιν – they grind barley for a drink

• Egypt and Thrace Mycenaean Beer Archaeobotanical evidence of Prehistoric Greece – Papathanasiou 2015

Lentils Peas vetch Emmer Einkorn Nestor’s Bru Six-row Barley Two-row Barley Grass peas Horsebeans Blackberries Cornelian cherries Pears Elderberries Figs Almonds Acorns Olives Megaron of “Nestor’s Palace” Wild grapes Pylos – c. 1300 BC Domesticated Grapes Ancient Greece as early as 1600-1100 BC (Mycenaean Culture)

Homeric Hymn to Demeter (lines 206-209)

τῇ δὲ δέπας Μετάνειρα δίδου μελιηδέος οἴνου πλήσασ᾽: ἣ δ᾽ ἀνένευσ᾽: οὐ γὰρ θεμιτόν οἱ ἔφασκε πίνειν οἶνον ἐρυθρόν: ἄνωγε δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἄλφι καὶ ὕδωρ δοῦναι μίξασαν πιέμεν γλήχωνι τερείνῃ. Demeter, enthroned and extending her hand in a benediction toward the kneeling Metaneira, • Eleusinian Mysteries: Kykeon = who offers the tribute wheat – a reoccurring mixed drink of barley and herbs symbol of the Mysteries (Varesse Painter, Red • Demeter = “Barley Mother” Figure Hydria, c. 340 BC, Apulia)

Xenophon 430-354 BC He says that there was “… in mixing bowls. The barley itself was on top, at lip-level, and in [bowls] were reeds, some larger and some smaller, that did not have joints. Whenever someone was thirsty he had to take these in his mouth to suck. And it was very strong unless one poured in water. And the drink was very good to the one used to it.” - Xen. Anab. 4.5.26-27

Funerary stele from el-Amarna (c. 1350 BC) Thracian, Phrygian, Egyptian?

Archilochus, Hellanicus, Hecataeus, Aeschylus, Herodotus, Galen (Roman)